• 878 - In that year a gang of vikings gathered and settled at Fulham on the

Thames.”
• 884 - The same year King Alfred sent a raiding ship-army from Kent into East
Anglia.
• 793 AD - Viking Raid on Lindisfarne: Traditional Beginning of “Viking Age”
• 1066 - Vikings defeated at Battle of Stamford Bridge: Traditional End of the
“Viking Age”
• c. 160 AD – First evidence of runic inscriptions
• c. 1000 AD – Christianization begins, Writing on parchment and vellum
introduced
• c. 1150 – First Icelandic Sagas written
• c. 1200 – Poetic Edda written
• c. 1208 AD – Gesta Danorum completed
• c. 1220 - Prose Edda written

Chapter 1:

Sami live in northern Scandinavia, Finland, and Russia’s Kola Peninsula

 Speak a Finno-Ugrian language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages
 Semi-nomadic reindeer-herders, hunters and gatherers
 Skaði (Sámi) - name of goddess/giantess, thought to have Sami origins and to
be identified with the land
 Scandinavia remained pagan until around 1000.
 Ohthere from Halogaland

Chapter 2:

 Voyage of Wulfstan – info on Estland (Estonia)

 King – drinks mare’s milk; Slaves – drink mead
 Adam of Bremen – (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church) circa 1072-6
 Ethnography - the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples
and cultures
 Danes – superstitious pirates
 Swedes – Best fighters on horse and ship
 Himantopodes (monster)- hops on one foot
 Skier hunting with bow and arrow, Rock carvings at Alta, Norway, about
1000 BCE.
 Norwegians – land of shepherds/poverty and piracy/accepted Christianity
 North Norway – Superior in magic arts or incantation
 The Middle Ages - 5th century – 15th century
 European History divided 3 periods: Antiquity, Middle Ages, Modern Period
 Weapon Hordes – buried between 200 and 300 AD
 3rd Century AD – Building of ‘HALLS’
Timeline:
• 13,500 BC – 1700 BC – Stone Age
• 1700 BC – 500 BC – Bronze Age
• 500 BC – 800 AD – Iron Age
– 27 BC – 476 AD – Western Roman Empire
– 376 AD - 800 AD – Migration Period
• 800 AD – 1050 AD - Viking Age

Chapter 3:

• Gudme Hall – Fyn, Denmark, circa 250 AD

• Eketorp – c 400 AD, village in south Sweden
• Evidence of intense strife in Germanic world: 200 AD
• Sack of Rome by Visigoths – 410 AD
• Angles, Saxons settle Britain – 400s AD
• Viking Class System – Thralls (slaves), Karls (free non-nobles), Hersir/Godar
(Cheiftains, priests), Konungr (King)
• Basis of Kingship:
- Must be descended from a king
- No fixed rule of succession
- King would be chosen by “the people” from among possible
candidates
- Really a matter of amassing the largest, most powerful following
- Based on wealth, influence, reputation

• “Kings are made for honour, not for long life”

– Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, words attributed to King Magnus Barelegs
of Norway, late 11th century

• First king of Norway – Harald Finehair, 872 (surname given by Earl Ragnvald
• First king of Sweden – Olof Skotonung, 975
• Horning Stone – Found in Jutland (Denmark) – Christian era 1000 AD. It says
that Toki the smith raised the stone in memory of Thorgisl Gudmundsson,
who gave him gold and his freedom.
• Rigspula (Lay of Rig) – Eddic poem, 13th – 14th century manuscript
• Heimdall (guardian of society) (1220)

Chapter 4:

• Vimose Comb, c. 160 AD, found in Denmark

• Øvre Stabu Spearhead, c. 180 AD, found in Norway
• Sticks inscribed with runes, found in Narsaq, Greenland in 1953, dated to c.
985-1025
• Christianization of Scandinavia, Writing on parchment and vellum
introduced, 1000 AD
 • Sagas – produced in Iceland
- Legendary Sagas / Sagas of Ancient Times

• Introduction (geneologies, setting, time period)

• Conflict (often includes a killing)
• Climax (often includes a lawsuit and a killing)
• Revenge (often includes a killing)
• Reconciliation
• Aftermath

Chapter 5:

• Egil’s Saga
-Written in Iceland 13th century by Snorri Sturluso
- Begins in period of King Harald Finehair’s rise to power in Norway (c. 872)
- Follows a family’s move from Norway to Iceland to escape Harald’s tyranny
- Spans about 150 years

• Most recently written king's saga is Heimskringla (Orb of the World)

• The Skald – pro oral poet, employed by king to provide entertainment
• The “Thing” was a regular assembly where legal matters were decided
- Had a judicial and legislative function
- In Iceland, a Goði (chieftain/priest) would represent his Þingmen (free male
landowners from his locality). Only the Goðar could vote in the Lögrétta
(legislature).

Chapter 6:

• Njals Saga
- Written in Iceland 13th century but set in 10-11th century Norway and
Iceland
- Centers around family feud & lawsuits brought at the Althing
• Grágás = “Gray Goose Laws”
• Thought to represent copies of older documents, first written down in
Iceland c. 1117
• Women had same rights as men but could not take part in the Thing

Chapter 7:

• Vreta Stone, 11th century, Sweden

• Hillersjö stone, 11th century, Sweden
• Oseberg Ship burial – Excavated in 1903, dated to 834, royal burial or burial
of supernatural person
• Unn/Aud the Deep-Minded
- Mentioned in several sources, including Islendengabók (Book of Icelanders)
- Wife of a Viking King who ruled Dublin
 - Daughter of a Norwegian Viking who ruled in the Hebrides in the mid 9th
century.
• Viking burial at Repton Woods
• Birka: Grave Bj 581

Chapter 8:

• Women could not hold political power, and their right to economic power
was limited.
• Women wield power through or because of men often by shaming and
inciting men to violence.
• Women represent the realm of social/familial obligations from men’s
perspective. Such obligations at times get in the way of pursuing wealth,
power, glory, etc., or even just staying alive.
• Women serve as scapegoats

Chapter 9:

• Edda (great grandmother) by Snorri Sturluson

• Prose Edda (younger edda)
• Poetry Edda (elder edda)
• Mythological and heroic stories/poems
• Thought to represent narratives form the oral tradition
• Odr (fury or rage) from Oddin
• Edere (to etch or write)
• Surt – the one with a flaming sword to burn all gods at worlds end
• Norns – these maidens shape men’s lives
• Ragnarok – A battle between Gods vs Loki and monsters. Gods die, Monsters
win and world gets destroyed.

Chapter 10:

• Hermes/Mercury – messenger of Gods

- God of commerce, eloquence/poetry, travel, divination, thieves, luck,
boundaries.
• Psychopomp (guides souls to the realm of the dead)
• Odin – Son of Bor and Bestla
- Highest of AESIR
- Rules all things, All Gods submit to him
- Wife = Frigg
- Children – Thor, lord, Baldr, Hod, Vidar
• Valhalla: Odin’s hall where the einherjar dwell, fighting each other every
day, and healing or regenerating every night , feasting and drinking, until
they are called to fight in Ragnarok.
• Valkyries: Supernatural females who choose who will live and die in battle;
they also bring Odin his share of the slain.
 • Einherjar: Warriors slain in battle chosen to serve Odin in the final battle of
Ragnarok; may just be the nobility
• Sacrifice of King Vikar in Gautrek’s Saga (to Odin for a good year)
Sacrifice of King Olaf in Ynglinga Saga (to Odin for a good year)

Shamanism in the strict sense is pre-eminently a religious phenomenon of Siberia

and Central Asia. Through this whole region in which the ecstatic experience is
considered the religious experience par excellence, the shaman, and he alone, is the
great master of ecstasy. Sami have shamanic religion. They speak a Finno-Ugric
language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Depicted in Scandinavian &
Finnish folklore as powerful magicians. The shaman specializes in a trance during
which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend into
the underworld. The shaman controls his spirits in the sense that he, a human being,
is able to communicate with the dead, ‘demons,’ and ‘nature spirits’ without thereby
becoming their instrument. Indeed, in a number of North American and Siberian
societies where shamanism was institutionalized, male shamans frequently dressed
and behaved as women, according, as they asserted, to the instigation of the spirits.

• Seidr (Sorcery) – Black Magic

• Njǫrðr’s daughter was Freyja. She was a sacrificial priestess. She was
the first to teach the Æsir black magic [Seiðr], which was customary
among the Vanir.
• Ergi (unmanliness)

Chapter 11:

• Volva (a prophetess)
• Varðir (caretaker or guardian) are guardian spirits associated with particular
places, families, and individuals
• Burial of Seeress - Buried at the Fyrkat gravesite in Jutland, Denmark, in the
10th century, grave #4
- Buried with unusual “wand” & purse containing hundreds of
henbane seeds: a hallucinogen
• Burial of Seer - Man buried at Hvidegården, Denmark c. 1200
• Thor (thunder) – Son of Odin, Warrior God, Hammer (Miollnir), Often away
from his home in Asgard.
• Temple in Iceland – Odin, Thor and Freyr
- Thor, they say, presides over the air, which governs the thunder and
lightening, the winds and rains, fair weather and crops. The other, Wotan—
that is, the Furious—carries on war and imparts to man strength against his
enemies. The third is Frikko, who bestows peace and pleasure on mortals.
• If plague and famine threaten, a libation is poured to the idol of Thor; if war,
to Wotan; if marriages are to be celebrated, to Frikko.
• Freyja is the most renowned of the goddesses; she has in heaven the dwelling
called Fólkvangr.
Chapter 12:

• Nydam Boat - Earliest clinker-built boat 400 AD

• Romans brought sailing technology to Gaul and Britain
• Oseberg ship - Oldest Scandinavian sailing vessel that has ever been found
• Longships – Used in warfare and Viking raids/Clinker built hull
• Hedeby 1 – 985, Found in Hedeby Harbor, Used as fire ship in attack
• Skuldelev 2 – 1042, Found sunk protecting access to Roskilde, Denmark
• Roskilde 6 – 1025, Longest Viking ship found in 1997
• Serpent Drakkar Dragon ship – Largest ship in Viking king fleet

Chapter 13:

Vikings had horses and traveled on horseback, but did not usually fight from the
saddle. For the purposes of fighting, they went on foot.

Tactics of Deception - Vikings would sometimes falsely declare peace by raising a

shield on high, and then when the opposition’s guard was down, they would attack.

The Raven Flag

Byrnie – Shirt of chain mail (protective gear)

Gjermundbu Helmet and mail – Only intact Viking age gear found in Central Norway

Viking weapons – Important symbol of power, rank and wealth. Had ritual
significance as gravegoods and sacrificial offerings

Swords – most prized/rarest of Viking weapons

Kormak’s Saga

Berserks – Warrior wearing no shirt